Peru says 7 Iraqis arrested with fake passports; allegedly planned to travel to US

Above: Lima, Peru

Seven Iraqis were arrested in Peru's capital with false passports they planned to use to travel to the United States, police said Tuesday.

Authorities seized fake Dutch, Ecuadorean and Iraqi passports from three apartments in Lima's upscale Miraflores district late Monday, police Col. Roberto Lujan told The Associated Press.

He said the documents were scanned and sent to officials at Interpol, but none of the Iraqis were suspected of links to terrorism.

Lujan, who headed the operation, said the suspects were linked to three other Iraqis who were arrested last month at Lima's international airport with false German passports and plane tickets to Los Angeles.

It was not immediately clear whether they were Iraqi Chaldean Christians, who frequently try to enter the U.S., claiming they face persecution in Iraq. California is home to a sizable Chaldean community.

Read the rest at AOL News

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